Kinesthetic sense refers to a person's ability to make unconscious muscular adjustments of the skeletal muscular system. These adjustments are made by nonthinking parts of the brain, deep within the cerebral cortex. They are not the same as balance and muscular coordination, which is another chain of command within the central nervous system. These movements are more like swinging your arms while you walk, or holding one arm still while holding a cup of coffee and walking at the same time.

People who suffer from loss of kinesthetic sense require therapy of some sort to readjust to the loss of this type of muscle control. The therapy may range from simple memorization to actual practice of muscular control, such as how hard one needs to hold something in order to pick it up. Kinesthetic sense may be lost by any one of a number of injuries or diseases involving the central nervous system, namely, the brain.